Q. Shane, how did you feel out there today?
SHANE BERTSCH: I felt pretty comfortable. The course was gettable this morning, being softer because of the rain we've had and stuff. I had a lot of real good looks at birdie. I didn't make a bunch. I kind of stole a couple, so it kind of evened out.
It's not a course where you could really -- even if you get a lot of 10, 12-footers, you can't gun at them. You're kind of playing defensive putting. All in all, it's a good round, pretty solid round.
Q. How important is it for you to put yourself in good position within striking distance of the leaders after the first round?
SHANE BERTSCH: I think particularly important in this case because we had the morning round where it's going to be softer. The wind seems like it's picking up. Everything should get a little tougher the whole rest of the week. We probably had the easiest time to get the course.
It's a very difficult course, but it's important to get off to a good start in any tournament, especially in a U.S. Open.
Q. You mentioned earlier must be a local guy thing. You are a local guy. How nice is it getting to play a major championship in more or less your backyard?
SHANE BERTSCH: Yeah, it's great. I've got all kinds of friends and family here. We're staying right at the Broadmoor, which is incredible. I'm getting ready to see my grandson, who's only 10 weeks old. So that's fun. He's making his first trip out of the house. It's great. You always want to play good for the folks, which doesn't really matter to them. They just want to watch me play.
I feel comfortable. I've been playing really good. I just haven't gotten a lot out of my year so far on the Champions Tour. I've had a lot of good rounds. Just hoping to put something together.
Q. Being from Denver, did you grow up with an appreciation of the Broadmoor at all?
SHANE BERTSCH: Yeah, I always knew of it. It's not like I got down here a lot or anything. I kind of know some of the history about it. NORAD was always interesting to me. Yeah, I grew up in Evergreen, so I grew up a little higher than this even.
The altitude golf is kind of not easy for me because I play most of my golf down at sea level now. Once you play a few rounds, you get back used to it.
Q. A lot of guys are talking about how challenging the course is. You were just out there. What did you think of it?
SHANE BERTSCH: It's very challenging. Golf is cliche, right? You've got to hit the fairways and greens. Fairways are ultimately important out here because the rough is so thick. I've got a few lies that I could get to the green from the rough today, but you're not going to get it all week. You've got to keep it in the fairway.
The biggest thing is the greens. The greens are very, very severe. Like I said, you can't ram at any putts. You're always kind of guessing a little bit because of all the mountain break and everything.
It's hard to just get comfortable and start trying to pour them in because I actually had a day today where I probably could have shot 4 or 5-under, but I would have had to make all my 10-footers, which is hard to do out here.
Q. How significant is this event to a player like you in particular? You've got some of the former world No. 1s out here, but a lot of guys who would still like that signature win. How do you view it?
SHANE BERTSCH: Yeah, any win is a great win. Obviously we're a long ways from that. This would be incredible. I've played with these guys my whole life, but the last five years on the Champions Tour, I've gotten a lot closer to a lot of them, some of the best players, some of the guys ranked No. 1 in the world at times and have won unbelievable amount of tournaments.
It's a great family atmosphere out here. It's a lot different than the Tour when I was in my 20s and 30s. It was a lot more cutthroat. It's a lot of fun out here.
Q. Being so close to home having so many people here with you, does it add the pressure? Does it make it a little more relaxing? What does it do for your mindset?
SHANE BERTSCH: There's always pressure in golf. I don't think it changes much. Like I said, you want to play good for your friends and family. No matter what, when you tee it up, there could be nobody watching you, and it's just pressure packed. That's how golf is. That's competitive golf. Especially when you go to a major level when everything is on edge a little bit, it just becomes that much more pressure packed.
Q. That run of 15, 16, 17, you had a couple birdies, and then you give one back. It seemed like that was kind of the crux of your round. How would you assess that?
SHANE BERTSCH: I had a lot of good chances, I think, on 12, 13, 14, and I didn't make any. To get a couple was great. 17 I hit a great drive. I got a little bit of a mud ball on the second shot over the left, which typically would have been a pretty decent spot, but the lies on the rough around the green are even more treacherous than off the fairways. I didn't have a lie that I could control. It was just a bogey that I had to take.
It would have been nice to make a par there. I thought I had a good chance at 18. My shot came up a little short on the second shot where I thought I was going to be good. All in all, great round.
Q. At what point in your career did you choose golf? I heard you were a tennis player as well. Is that right?
SHANE BERTSCH: I was a junior tennis player and a junior ski racer up at Loveland Basin. I kind of got into golf around age 13. The summer up in Evergreen, I got a job up at the municipal golf. I didn't ever play golf up until then, but I just fell in love with it, the fact that you could play on your own and practice on your own and didn't have to have someone to play with, like tennis. Not that that was the big deciding factor, I just really had a knack for it when I picked it up.
Started working at golf courses through junior high and high school. That's all I wanted to do was go to college somewhere and play, and when I was in college, all I wanted to do was play pro. It's worked out. It's been a long career. It's been an up-and-down career. It's been a journeyman type career, but I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
Q. What was your high school golf like, and what do you remember about playing golf in high school?
SHANE BERTSCH: I remember winning a few tournaments my senior year and that being pretty exciting. Being the first one to letter up in my class at Evergreen because golf was an early sport, and I lettered when I was a freshman. So that was kind of cool.
High school golf, college golf, all that was just great. Great, great memories playing with my teammates and still in touch with a lot of teammates from both high school and college. A lot of high school friends down here today. None of them that were on the golf team, but they were all basketball, football players at Evergreen, kind of a jock crew. We screwed around a lot, I think.
Q. On that note then, is it at all surreal to still be out here and competing in these major tournaments in your home state?
SHANE BERTSCH: Sometimes I do have to slap myself, but it's usually because I'm angry at how it's going. Some people might think I'm privileged because I play golf. It's a very hard thing. It's been very difficult. It's tough on the family sometimes, and it's tough.
Yeah, people remind me, and sometimes I think, oh, yeah, I have been doing it for 37 years or something. So it's been a long time. It's been fun.
Q. You mentioned the tennis, obviously you played Andre Agassi at one point. Can you walk us through that story?
SHANE BERTSCH: It was real quick. He beat me 6-0, 6-1. The I got one game off of him.
The best part about that story it was a huge tournament because it was a Junior Intermountain: Colorado, Utah, Nevada, maybe Wyoming, maybe five states. He was the best player in the nation, and I drew him first round, which threw me into a consolation bracket, and I beat two kids from Colorado that I had never beaten, and I won the consolation bracket. I still have that cup. So I won that tournament... consolation (laughter).
Q. You mentioned your grandson's here. Is he the first grandson?
SHANE BERTSCH: He is. Little A.J., he's 10 weeks old. Every time I leave, I say hurry up and grow up so I can take you fishing and golfing. He's not quite there yet.
Q. Where do they live?
SHANE BERTSCH: They live with us in Parker right now.
Q. Is it cool that you have family here to kind of enjoy this with you?
SHANE BERTSCH: Yeah, I do. Both my girls, my youngest girl is 18. She'll be up tomorrow. She had to work today. The oldest, who has A.J., they should have gotten here. I didn't see them yet. They're probably in the room right now. They just came up today. But it will be fun, his first little road trip away from the house. He doesn't know what's going on. Hopefully someday he'll realize it.
Q. When you play a Tour like this, how often do you get family here to enjoy it?
SHANE BERTSCH: My wife is with me a lot these days on the Tour. My family, my whole family was with me a lot throughout my career. We actually homeschooled the girls through a lot of their schooling, and we had an RV and we wanted everybody to be together because it is a hard life out there being away for 10, Suh weeks at a time. So my wife was pretty much always with me.
As far as other family, I have cousins and uncles and stuff that show up every once in a while, but it's hard to get my sister -- my brother's on the bag again this week. He caddied for me for a long time on Tour, but he hasn't caddied for me for about eight years. We're kind of reunited this week. It's been a fun week.
Q. Over the years, how many times would you guess you've played out here?
SHANE BERTSCH: I could probably tell you. I played here twice in the last month and a half because I wanted to come up. On the couple off weeks we had, I came up and got a couple rounds in because I hadn't played it in 30 years since then.
It's just one of those things. We play so much golf as professional golfers that I don't drive an hour and a half to play golf when I'm home. I'll drive an hour and a half to go fishing, but I won't drive an hour and a half to golf very often.
Q. How far away is your house?
SHANE BERTSCH: It's about an hour with no traffic, probably an hour and 15 with traffic. We're on the south side of Parker.
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